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User blog:DylanTBest/(SPOILERS) Defending The Force Awakens Part 1
This blog was originally going to touch on most of the criticism of The Force Awakens but I decided the "It's too similar to A New Hope" is too big of a topic to be put in a small section. One of the hugest things The Force Awakens is catching flack over is the fact it borrows too much from the original films, specifically A New Hope. Many people argue the very basic plot is nearly an exact remake of A New Hope: "After a group of rebels are attacked by an army of stormtroopers, a droid must escape the battle and deliver data regarding one of the last jedi masters. The droid's journey is interrupted when a person on a desert planet finds him and joins them on their quest. Meanwhile, the antagonists are building a giant star system that can destroy planets." They're right, you can literally take this synopsis and both movies would seem exactly alike. But that's where the comparison ends. The only other similarities are either really small or vague. In this blog I'm going to take a moment to tell you why saying "it's too similar to A New Hope" is a dumb reason to not like The Force Awakens Keep in mind I'm not taking into consideration the rest of the trilogy so I'm only using information revealed in A New Hope (ex: I'm not acknowledging the fact Vader is Luke's father). Comparing the Main Characters The main characters in The Force Awakens were Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Han Solo, and Kylo Ren. The main characters of A New Hope were Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Vader. If you look at Finn and the characters from A New Hope, it's very, very hard to find a character who's anything like him. In fact this is why he's my favorite character in this movie, he's like nothing we've ever seen in the Star Wars movies. That being said I'm not focusing on him since no one is comparing him to anyone in the first place. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker both played key roles as the last surviving Jedi in these movies. While their roles as "mysterious Jedi masters" are obvious and one of the resistance/rebel's goals is finding them, they are both very different characters and not even worth the comparison. The Princess and Poe Dameron's presence in both movies were pretty scarce and we didn't learn much about them so I'm not including them either. This leaves Rey, Luke, Kylo, and Vader. It's pretty clear who's being compared to who so lets get to it. The Protagonists: Rey and Luke Skywalker Both were underdogs from sandy planets, one from Jakku and the other from Tatooine. However, while Luke had a fairly decent upbringing, being raised by his aunt and uncle as a farmer around friends; Rey was alone, forced to scavenge for junk on a planet thats practically isolated aside from a junkyard inhabited by scummy aliens. There journey begins very similarly, Luke purchases two droids that belong to the rebellion, and Rey defends a droid belonging to the resistance. Both droids are found to be carrying information regarding legendary Jedi. Naturally, they both help the droids get to their respective owners because thats how stories work. However, their reasonings and motivations aren't very similar. Luke helped R2 and 3PO because he wanted to join the rebellion and become a starfigher pilot. Being that his uncle and aunt wouldn't let him join due to their fear for his safety and his duties as a moisture farmer, those droids may have been his only ticket out of Tatooine. On the other hand, Rey saved BB-8 from being taken for parts out of pure generosity, even though the harsh world she lived in would leave anyone cynical. She didn't want to join the resistance, in fact she didn't even want to leave Jakku; she believed whoever left her their would come back for her. Despite her friendliness, Rey was still tempted to take advantage of BB-8. When Unkar Plutt offers her a large amount of currency in exchange for the droid, Rey has to take a while to think about whether or not she accepts his offer. Ultimately, she decides to do the right thing and not sell the droid. This scene and many others implies Rey probably isn't entirely the "flawless good guy" like Luke was. Another difference between their initial journeys is how they find out about the droids carrying important intel for the resistance/rebellion. Luke activates the iconic "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." hologram himself by accident, this prompts him to search for Ben Kenobi and get his help in finding his relative Obi-Wan. Rey doesn't find out about BB-8's affiliation with the resistance until Finn shows up and poses as a member of the resistance. While showing admiration for the resistance, she doesn't really express any interest in staying with it long term like Luke did. She just wants to help out BB-8 and get back to her business. On his way to old Kenobi's, Luke is attacked by tusken raiders and saved by Ben himself, who scares the raiders off. This shows Luke isn't exactly a "strong, superman-like hero" similar to other sci-fi heroes; instead, he's just a farmboy who was in the right place at the right time, more Steve Rogers than Indiana Jones. As a result of having to spend most of her life fighting for herself with no friends or family, Rey is a much different person. She's a lot more stronger and conditioned for high pressure situations, like escaping the First Order in an old ship easily mistaken for garbage. Ben reveals to Luke he is, well used to be, Obi-Wan Kenobi. To Luke's surprise, Obi-Wan was a good friend with his father Anakin, and even more surprising, fought alongside him in the Clone Wars. Obi-Wan explains him and his father were Jedi, an ancient religion that went extinct after the climax of the Clone Wars and rise of the Republic. The Jedi went extinct after they were purged by another one of Obi-Wan's apprentices, Darth Vader, a fallen Jedi. The golden hearted, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly Anakin was one of Darth Vader's many victims. Learning about his father's past with the Republic only prompts Luke to want to join the rebellion even more, and his father's past as a Jedi makes him curious about maybe training with Obi-Wan in the ways of the force. Category:Blog posts